Ex DDA officer arrested in allotment scam

A retired officer of Delhi Development Authority was on Thursday arrested after evidence cropped up against him in the DDA flat allotment fraud, while a property dealer is understood to have been detained for questioning.
    
M L Gautam, who retired from DDA's telephone department in 2004, was taken into custody on Wenesday for questioning and later was formally arrested after his involvement was established, police said.
    
"Gautam has been placed under arrest after evidence cropped up against him during interrogation," joint commissioner of police (crime) Amulya Patnaik said.
    
This is the third arrest by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police's crime branch, which is investigation into a complaint that a cartel of property dealers and DDA officials conspired to rig the draw of allotment and cornered flats reserved for SC/STs.
     
Laxmi Narayan Meena, a sacked bank employee, and Deepak Kumar, a law graduate, were earlier arrested for allegedly collecting details of SC/ST people and submitting applications for the flats earmarked for them without their knowledge.
    
Suresh Kumar Meena, a property dealer, who is absconding, is understood to have been detained by investigators but there was no official confirmation on it. When asked, Patnaik refused to confirm the detention saying investigations were progressing and it was not appropriate time to comment on in.

Deepak has alleged that Suresh was threatening him after he fell out with the cartel and informed police and Indian Justice Party chief Udit Raj about their intentions to rig the flat allotment.
    
Police sources said they were questioning Suresh.
    
Gautam's name came to the fore during Deepak's interrogation, the sources said.
    
Gautam and Kumar were known to each other as they were the residents of Paschim Vihar and used to meet during morning walks.
    
Police believe that it was Gautam who advised Kumar not to apply in the SC category as chances of getting flat in ST category were more and that the former DDA employee was promised some money.
    
"Gautam apparently told Deepak it was wiser to apply in reserved category rather than in general. He also advised him to apply specifically in ST category as chances of getting flat were very high. He also promised to help them as he knew a lot of people in DDA," a senior police official said.
    
Police is scanning the call records and bank details of Gautam to establish his role in the fraud, the official said.
       
The EOW personnel visited the DDA headquarters on Tuesday to verify whether Gautam is a serving official of the agency but found that he was not on its pay rolls anymore.
        
Indian Justice Party chief Udit Raj, who had complained about irregularities in the process, claimed he had on December two informed the DDA about Gautam's activities.

Widening the scope of probe into the irregularities in the allotment of DDA flats, police have also started examining applications submitted by people from North-Eastern states, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
       
The police said that the probe would also be extended into the general category.
       
"We suspect that applications were filed in general category also after getting details of people from Jharkhand and Manipur. We have sought the details of applicants under general category and are trying to verify the information," he added.
    
In some cases, applicants did not even know that applications were submitted in their names. Majority of them belong to Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu.
    
Police have already took possession of CDs containing the details of over 5.67 applicants from the DDA on Tuesday for further examination. This move comes close on the heels of sleuths seizing the hardware of the computer used for controversial draw of lots for DDA flats.
       
"Both the hardware and CDs are being examined at the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Hyderabad," the official said.
    
He said this was part of investigations to ascertain whether any DDA official is involved in committing the irregularities.